TMBA 163 (LBP140) – The Location Independence Imperative

Dan and Ian are dividing and conquering for the next few weeks but don’t shed a tear, the separation is only temporary. Ian’s off to Tokyo for sushi while Dan’s swinging through the Philippines to check up on some business and meet up with entrepreneurs. This shows the beauty of operating location independent businesses which is the main topic of this week’s episode.

They boys delve into an interesting conversation on the location independent movement and why it’s not just a fad. You’ll hear some pretty powerful stuff this week from getting inspired by strangeness to cities losing their value in the modern world. Plug in, sit back and grab yourself a cup of coffee since this week will no doubt leave you reflecting on the merits of location independence.

This was a key podcast that jives with the change in my thinking in the last year. Just over a year ago I was giving advice to a consultant-in-the-making that he should dig into his city for at least a good solid year. But in that year, I’ve gotten enough validation from a ton of resources that doing so would probably be a hinderance than a help. The few benefits of setting up in a particular city no longer outweigh the benefits of location independent consulting.

This was an especially good episode, guys. Loved all the talk about mindset and how early things still are in the location independence trend. Plus, any conversation where Sam Harris and Chris Hitchens are mentioned automatically makes me feel smarter. ;)

Agree completely, this is something I’ve struggled with in the past – most of my clients are on the other side of the country. The reality is the market has shifted and people are fine dealing over the net and a lot of the credit for the mindset change has to go to smartphones – I live in a world now where both my parents walk around with the internet in their pocket (smartphones) and they’re more comfortable dealing in a virtual world so physical presence is no longer a must-have on the “do I trust you” checklist therefore I can do business in locations where I’m physically not at

One thing that always gets me… a 12 year old girl with access to the internet has access to more information than the president of the U.S. did 25 years ago. A few hundred years ago, if you had a good idea, chances are, no one heard of it. Communication beyond your town was difficult, if not impossible. But in the 21 century, anyone with an idea and an opinion can tell the world. The entire fucking world. It’s anyone’s guess where that leads… When everyone can share ideas, the pool of available ideas becomes larger, which means the availability of great ideas increases, which means society and humanity moves faster in development.

I’m reading the 4th Economy now and it’s crazy how information changes things. For over a thousand years, the common people were slaves to the church, since they couldn’t read the bible. But when they all gained access to the bible, they were able to make their own minds up, and BANG, the world changed forever (Catholic -> Protestant). Then when societies developed finance and open markets (and learned how to use them), BANG, the world changed again. Ditto for the Enlightenment and the Renaissance.

From your point-of-view – where you’re already relatively successful and are just growing – a city is absolutely limiting factor. Your role is to think long-term and in that sense, the internet will certainly overtake cities as aggregators where you’ll be able to find like-minded people easily and quickly. After all, I have never met either of you yet we’ve exchanged more emails than I can count and I think of you as friends.

However, as someone who is still gaining traction in the business world, nothing can replace the networks that already exist in cities today. It’s easy to forget, but most of business is still done in person and a coffee usually creates a far better connection than an email chain. This is even more crucial when your personality has to win over influencers more than your title. Maybe I’ve benefitted because I’m doing tech in Chicago (where it’s exploding at the moment), but I’ve been able to parlay friends and contacts into new relationships that would have surprised me just three months ago. For example, I am now just one degree of separation away from the mayor.

Great discussion though. Also, really looking forward to that top 10 books list.

Very interesting, was not aware of this position. I agree the chance to be flexible, save costs, hire and work with diverse people, and focus on edge cases in the market (say people that need podcast editing consulting) more important for new consultants than Geonetworking.

I agree with meeting is crucial, but you could live a little bit out of Chicago and buzz in regularly to have those.

I agree cities are still really important and still dominant. I like the idea that seems to be emerging this decade that start-ups who are focused on edge cases (like podcast editing, or seo for plumbers) would likely be better served by having no central and inflexible base of operations.

moving out of a city would significantly hurt your chances to get jobs and investors, but clients and users probably better to focus on IM + buzzing in for events and conferences.

Real face-time is important, especially for “referability” but it can be accomplished on a fly-by basis.

My plan is live somewhere cheap and fly into my main biz cities (San Francisco, NYC, DC) once a quarter. THAT is still FAR cheaper than trying to live there full time, and also affords me additional benefits.

My clients actually dig that I am not a part of the “hive” or borg collective of any particular “scene”

Fellas, I loved this podcast and agree with most everything in it. Especially when it comes to location independence, the value of mobility and how you build your business around these concepts.

One thing I disagree with is the role of cities in the future.

While the Internet will not go away, and will undoubtedly create efficiencies in every industry on Earth, I see it as one piece of the puzzle.

While everyone sucks at predicting the future, I have no doubt the Internet, and how use it will look nothing like it does now in 10 years.

I’ve seen this evolution in my own lifetime, and it will continue to evolve.

In terms of connecting, and building networks, the Internet is really efficient at connecting us to information and communities that confirm our biases.

While the Internet, particularly mobile, and mobile applications can connect you to serendipitous opportunities, unlocking these opportunities often involves your physical presence.

That means investing your time in cities, not just one city, which is they key.

At the end of the day you’re only as powerful as your network. While I’ve made incredible, life changing connections in the DC, those connections really blossomed when I connected with these individuals in hubs – cities.

Lastly, you still need a place to incorporate an entity, bank, currency and so on to make this possible.

I feel confident saying the cities that most efficiently facilitate protections for the points above while being hubs for the best and brightest in the world will likely be the places you want to have a network in to explode your business.

Hey Jon… thoughtful as always. I think this brings up an interesting idea– the idea that cities (and maybe even countries) are specializing, competing, and collaborating. Would you predict that one day a country might decide to be a second home for “homeless” nomads like us? Chilie and Singapore have certainly made gestures in that direction in the last decade. Even within the US it seems the polarization of our country might continue if cities start to be more ‘hub like’ and specialize. On the incorporation front, as cost of incorporation continues to go down entrepreneurs will continue to comparison shop and countries who understand this will come out the winners. If you ask US entrepreneurs where they are incorporated they’ll either say “Delaware” or “where I started my business.” I suspect that answer will change just as radically as “why do you live in x place” question did over the last 20 years.

Specifically in the US I can see where our size, and diversity is a competitive disadvantage for what’s coming.

Cities, and countries are already competing for talent, and a concentration of talent is the engine of growth, differentiation and competitive advantage for countries that best serve what I feel is this inevitable evolution of how we will live, work, and play.

Cities and countries will have to think of themselves as businesses or risk irrelevancy.

We’re already seeing the warning shots fired.

While I don’t think Startup Chile nailed it, the thinking is in the right direction in terms of how to support this evolution.

I can’t think of a more exciting time to be alive.

The new wealth, “mobility” – is within the grasp of more people than at any other point in the history of this planet.

Lastly, as you said, which I love and agree with – the “script” – the social contract we grew up with – is totally up for grabs.